Discovery BoxGenesis 38:1-10
Context38:1 At that time Judah left 1 his brothers and stayed 2 with an Adullamite man 3 named Hirah.
38:2 There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man 4 named Shua. 5 Judah acquired her as a wife 6 and had marital relations with her. 7 38:3 She became pregnant 8 and had a son. Judah named 9 him Er. 38:4 She became pregnant again and had another son, whom she named Onan. 38:5 Then she had 10 yet another son, whom she named Shelah. She gave birth to him in Kezib. 11
38:6 Judah acquired 12 a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar. 38:7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord killed him.
38:8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Have sexual relations with 13 your brother’s wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her so that you may raise 14 up a descendant for your brother.” 15 38:9 But Onan knew that the child 16 would not be considered his. 17 So whenever 18 he had sexual relations with 19 his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely 20 so as not to give his brother a descendant. 38:10 What he did was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord 21 killed him too.
Genesis 46:12
Context46:12 The sons of Judah:
Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah
(but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan).
The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
Genesis 46:1
Context46:1 So Israel began his journey, taking with him all that he had. 22 When he came to Beer Sheba 23 he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
Genesis 2:3-8
Context2:3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy 24 because on it he ceased all the work that he 25 had been doing in creation. 26
2:4 This is the account 27 of the heavens and
the earth 28 when they were created – when the Lord God 29 made the earth and heavens. 30
2:5 Now 31 no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field 32 had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 33 2:6 Springs 34 would well up 35 from the earth and water 36 the whole surface of the ground. 37 2:7 The Lord God formed 38 the man from the soil of the ground 39 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 40 and the man became a living being. 41
2:8 The Lord God planted an orchard 42 in the east, 43 in Eden; 44 and there he placed the man he had formed. 45
[38:1] 1 tn Heb “went down from.”
[38:1] 2 tn Heb “and he turned aside unto.”
[38:1] 3 tn Heb “a man, an Adullamite.”
[38:2] 4 tn Heb “a man, a Canaanite.”
[38:2] 5 tn Heb “and his name was Shua.”
[38:2] 6 tn Heb “and he took her.”
[38:2] 7 tn Heb “and he went to her.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
[38:3] 8 tn Or “she conceived” (also in the following verse).
[38:3] 9 tc Some
[38:5] 10 tn Heb “and she added again and she gave birth.” The first verb and the adverb emphasize that she gave birth once more.
[38:5] 11 tn Or “and he [i.e., Judah] was in Kezib when she gave birth to him.”
[38:6] 12 tn Heb “and Judah took.”
[38:8] 13 tn Heb “go to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
[38:8] 14 tn The imperative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose.
[38:8] 15 sn Raise up a descendant for your brother. The purpose of this custom, called the levirate system, was to ensure that no line of the family would become extinct. The name of the deceased was to be maintained through this custom of having a child by the nearest relative. See M. Burrows, “Levirate Marriage in Israel,” JBL 59 (1940): 23-33.
[38:9] 17 tn Heb “would not be his,” that is, legally speaking. Under the levirate system the child would be legally considered the child of his deceased brother.
[38:9] 18 tn The construction shows that this was a repeated practice and not merely one action.
[38:9] 19 tn Heb “he went to.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
[38:9] 20 tn Heb “he spoiled [his semen] to the ground.” Onan withdrew prematurely and ejaculated on the ground to prevent his brother’s widow from becoming pregnant.
[38:10] 21 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
[46:1] 22 tn Heb “and Israel journeyed, and all that was his.”
[46:1] 23 sn Beer Sheba. See Gen 21:31; 28:10.
[2:3] 24 tn The verb is usually translated “and sanctified it.” The Piel verb קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) means “to make something holy; to set something apart; to distinguish it.” On the literal level the phrase means essentially that God made this day different. But within the context of the Law, it means that the day belonged to God; it was for rest from ordinary labor, worship, and spiritual service. The day belonged to God.
[2:3] 25 tn Heb “God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[2:3] 26 tn Heb “for on it he ceased from all his work which God created to make.” The last infinitive construct and the verb before it form a verbal hendiadys, the infinitive becoming the modifier – “which God creatively made,” or “which God made in his creating.”
[2:4] 27 tn The Hebrew phrase אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת (’elle tolÿdot) is traditionally translated as “these are the generations of” because the noun was derived from the verb “beget.” Its usage, however, shows that it introduces more than genealogies; it begins a narrative that traces what became of the entity or individual mentioned in the heading. In fact, a good paraphrase of this heading would be: “This is what became of the heavens and the earth,” for what follows is not another account of creation but a tracing of events from creation through the fall and judgment (the section extends from 2:4 through 4:26). See M. H. Woudstra, “The Toledot of the Book of Genesis and Their Redemptive-Historical Significance,” CTJ 5 (1970): 184-89.
[2:4] 28 tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1.
[2:4] 29 sn Advocates of the so-called documentary hypothesis of pentateuchal authorship argue that the introduction of the name Yahweh (
[2:4] 30 tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1; the order here is reversed, but the meaning is the same.
[2:5] 31 tn Heb “Now every sprig of the field before it was.” The verb forms, although appearing to be imperfects, are technically preterites coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem). The word order (conjunction + subject + predicate) indicates a disjunctive clause, which provides background information for the following narrative (as in 1:2). Two negative clauses are given (“before any sprig…”, and “before any cultivated grain” existed), followed by two causal clauses explaining them, and then a positive circumstantial clause is given – again dealing with water as in 1:2 (water would well up).
[2:5] 32 tn The first term, שִׂיחַ (siakh), probably refers to the wild, uncultivated plants (see Gen 21:15; Job 30:4,7); whereas the second, עֵשֶׂב (’esev), refers to cultivated grains. It is a way of saying: “back before anything was growing.”
[2:5] 33 tn The two causal clauses explain the first two disjunctive clauses: There was no uncultivated, general growth because there was no rain, and there were no grains because there was no man to cultivate the soil.
[2:6] 34 tn The conjunction vav (ו) introduces a third disjunctive clause. The Hebrew word אֵד (’ed) was traditionally translated “mist” because of its use in Job 36:27. However, an Akkadian cognate edu in Babylonian texts refers to subterranean springs or waterways. Such a spring would fit the description in this context, since this water “goes up” and waters the ground.
[2:6] 35 tn Heb “was going up.” The verb is an imperfect form, which in this narrative context carries a customary nuance, indicating continual action in past time.
[2:6] 36 tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same nuance as the preceding verb. Whenever it would well up, it would water the ground.
[2:6] 37 tn The Hebrew word אֲדָמָה (’adamah) actually means “ground; fertile soil.”
[2:7] 38 tn Or “fashioned.” The prefixed verb form with vav (ו) consecutive initiates narrative sequence. The Hebrew word יָצַר (yatsar) means “to form” or “to fashion,” usually by plan or design (see the related noun יֵצֶר [yetser] in Gen 6:5). It is the term for an artist’s work (the Hebrew term יוֹצֵר [yotser] refers to a potter; see Jer 18:2-4.)
[2:7] 39 tn The line literally reads “And Yahweh God formed the man, soil, from the ground.” “Soil” is an adverbial accusative, identifying the material from which the man was made.
[2:7] 40 tn The Hebrew word נְשָׁמָה (nÿshamah, “breath”) is used for God and for the life imparted to humans, not animals (see T. C. Mitchell, “The Old Testament Usage of Nÿshama,” VT 11 [1961]: 177-87). Its usage in the Bible conveys more than a breathing living organism (נֶפֶשׁ חַיַּה, nefesh khayyah). Whatever is given this breath of life becomes animated with the life from God, has spiritual understanding (Job 32:8), and has a functioning conscience (Prov 20:27).
[2:7] 41 tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often translated “soul,” but the word usually refers to the whole person. The phrase נֶפֶשׁ חַיַּה (nefesh khayyah, “living being”) is used of both animals and human beings (see 1:20, 24, 30; 2:19).
[2:8] 42 tn Traditionally “garden,” but the subsequent description of this “garden” makes it clear that it is an orchard of fruit trees.
[2:8] 43 tn Heb “from the east” or “off east.”
[2:8] 44 sn The name Eden (עֵדֶן, ’eden) means “pleasure” in Hebrew.
[2:8] 45 tn The perfect verbal form here requires the past perfect translation since it describes an event that preceded the event described in the main clause.
